Lockermate (Education Variation 04)
by Lucifer Rosemaunt
Summary: Short ficlet variations on a theme: education/school. Wrapping lockers is an art form, almost as much as breaking into lockers to do so is. Modern!AU, high school!AU, liberties taken with their ages. ErikRaoul slash.


Title: Lockermate (Education Variation 04)  
><span>Author<span>: Lucifer Rosemaunt

Summary: Short ficlet variations on a theme: education/school. Wrapping lockers is an art form, almost as much as breaking into lockers to do so is.  
><span>Fandom<span>: Phantom of the Opera  
><span>Pairing(s)<span>: Erik/Raoul pre-slash  
>Warning(s): modern!AU, high school!AU, liberties taken with their respective ages<br>Word Count: 2,440  
><span>Rating<span>: K+

o.o.o.o

No matter how bad his day seemed to be going, Raoul could not help but smile every time he walked through the hallway that had his locker. The sight of one locker out of the multitude having been neatly done up in birthday wrapping paper sent an immediate burst of joy through his heart, knowing that it was _his_ locker; someone had taken the effort to wrap his locker. It had been an entire week and the sight of it had yet to lose its novelty.

His birthday technically had been Tuesday, but come Monday, fresh from the weekend, some person who wished to remain anonymous had wrapped his locker in celebration for it. He did not even know how that was possible. It was not as though he arrived at school exceedingly early, but to have taken the time to do it so prettily and not have anyone see it happen seemed an impossible feat to achieve. Yet, someone had.

At first, he had assumed it was Christine who had wrapped it because she was the only who knew his birthday had been approaching. On top of that, she was also the only one Raoul had ever told his locker combination to because of that one time she needed to borrow one of his textbooks. Well, she has had to borrow it twice but each time she had needed him to remind her what the combination was. He doubted she would have memorized it. He also did not see a reason why she would continue to deny having wrapped his locker, especially when she handed him a card and an accompanying magnetic sailboat on his actual birthday.

It was Friday already and custom dictated that he remove the wrapping paper today and continue on without the only daily reminder that he had gotten one year older to make him smile. Classes were done; the hallways were almost completely empty; and Philippe was surely already waiting for him outside but he still could not bring himself to undo the wrapping. The gift-wrapped locker had been expertly done, too, all sharp corners and neat folds. Not a single tape threatened to touch the pictures of his family and friends that he had held up by magnets on the inside of his locker door.

He held up his cellphone and took several more photos of it from different angles to keep as a reminder. He already had a gallery just for his locker not only from those different angles but also from varying distances, but it was hardly enough. Running his fingers over the paper, he sighed before opening the locker. The picture at eye-level was one held up by his new sailboat magnet and featured a rather large group of his year group at one of the annual class picnics they had last year. Christine, Meg, and several other girls were seated on the grass in front of a wooden picnic table that was overrun with teenage boys who were nearly pushing each other off the table and teenage girls sitting coyly on the bench, their legs crossed and hands folded on their knees, and at the very edge of the group, there was one boy who had his arms crossed and was the only one in the entire group who was not smiling or laughing. The scowling boy had a mask and held himself apart from the group. Last year, when the photo had been taken, Raoul had not really had an opinion one way or the other about him since they had rarely interacted with each other. This year was different though. This year, their lockers were side-by-side and their classes seemed to overlap even though Raoul knew for a fact that the masked boy was considerably smarter than he was.

Their interactions this year had been more insults and rhetorical biting questions than anything he could consider true conversation. Raoul could not rightly explain it though. He was not masochistic in any way, but he looked forward to their small interactions. Erik was not _always_ mean and Raoul was beginning to see his caustic behavior for the defense mechanism that it was to keep people away. The thing was, Raoul did not think Erik wanted to keep him away – not anymore at least. He would glimpse it sometimes in the way Erik's tone changed, or the way he looked at him, or the show he made out of _grudgingly_ letting him borrow school supplies when he forgot or lost things – and for some reason, he kept misplacing his textbooks so that he was forced to surreptitiously share with Erik during class. He could not explain how grateful he was even though all Erik ever did was gripe about it and lecture him about his lack of responsibility. The other boy never refused to share his books though and that meant something more than his words ever would.

Since Monday, ever since Christine had convinced him that she could not have wrapped his locker, Raoul had a sneaking suspicion as to who would have wrapped his locker. He, however, did not have any proof and almost could not believe his own conclusions. His gut was convinced though, and after revealing his thoughts to Christine, she had spent the entire week in observation and told him just this morning that his guts were more than likely right. After all, his locker buddy had even said "happy birthday" even though it was couched in reluctance and muttered fast enough that Raoul would have missed it had he not spent the past months attuned to listening to everything Erik said.

He frowned as he gingerly pried tape from metal. The top of the wrapping paper gradually came free, drooping downward sadly when a voice sounded from behind the door.

"What are you even planning to do with that?" Erik asked with clear derision. "You're much too rich to need to reuse that."

Raoul pulled the door closed far enough so that he could look at Erik's face and he gave him a small smile that actually made the other boy hesitate to place the next book into his bag. "It was a nice gesture," Raoul admitted. He knew the other boy never knew what to do when he responded to his snipes with friendliness. He liked being able to make Erik falter since the other boy was filled with such an angry sort of confidence, as though he lived his life daring other people to question his very existence. "I want to keep it."

"Keep it?" Erik muttered, fixing his eyes directly into his locker. Notebooks followed the textbooks in his bag with what was certainly more force than necessary.

Raoul watched him for a second longer, still smiling, before he opened the locker door wide enough to work on freeing the rest of the wrapping paper. He was a little disappointed because of how their lockers were situated; he could not open it all the way in order to keep Erik in sight without hindering the other boy's movements. At least hidden, Erik would not be able to see him hesitate. He was not sure what he was going to do with the wrapping paper; he had only thought as far as wanting to keep it.

"Yeah," he said suddenly in realization. "I want to remember." He shrugged more to himself than Erik. "I want to remember because it's the nicest thing anyone's done for me."

Erik scoffed, as Raoul assumed he would. "I really doubt this is the nicest thing anyone's done for you."

Honestly, this was not the first time that someone had wrapped his locker for his birthday, and it was not an uncommon occurrence in general. In a bad week, there were at least two lockers wrapped in the entirety of the school. None of them had ever looked so perfect though and none of his previous crushes had ever done it for him. Christine had certainly never tried and now that his crush on her had faded into something more like sisterly affection, it would not have meant the same anyway had she tried.

Then, there was also the mystery of Erik managing to get into his locker, but Raoul had spent the week googling tips and techniques on how to open a combination lock without needing the three digit combination. Although he was certain Erik had found a roundabout way of getting into his locker, Raoul was becoming quite proficient at opening the one he kept at home for practice with the coke can shim he had created.

"Well," Raoul reasoned, trying to explain it to Erik without outright admitting why he was one of the reasons he looked forward to coming to school every day. "Whoever wrapped it didn't want any praise and that's… nice. I have no way of showing my appreciation and even though it's frustrating, I still can't help the fact that seeing it makes me happy. I kind of want to be able to grab onto that happiness whenever I feel down."

When Erik did not respond right away and there were not even the sounds of Erik's backpack rustling or textbooks being moved, Raoul stopped what he was doing to peek around the locker door. The other boy was just standing there, holding his zipped bag and staring at Raoul's locker with an unreadable expression on his face.

"It's sentimental I know," he said with embarrassment, rolling his eyes at his lack of filter. He could not help one last admission though, hoping that it would mean something to the other boy. "I do want to say thank you to whoever did it though."

"Whomever," Erik corrected. Raoul sighed at his response, but Erik slammed his locker shut and cut him off before he could reply, "I'm sure your face…" he settled his backpack onto his shoulders with a slight cough, "I'm sure your stupid face whenever you looked at it throughout this week was thank you enough."

Raoul let out a surprised huff of a laugh. "You think so?"

"Probably." Erik looked everywhere except directly at him. "Who knows?"

"Hm." The wrapping paper slipped off his locker as the last of the tape gave way. It almost fell to the floor, but Erik caught it.

"What do you think I should do?" Raoul asked.

Handing him the paper, Erik repeated, "Do?"

"As a thank you." Raoul struggled as he tried to smooth the too-large wrapping paper without putting it down. It was not cooperating and he gasped as he almost tore it several times.

"You don't know who wrapped it," Erik pointed out, frowning at Raoul's obvious incompetence. "How would you even be able to do something?"

Raoul held the top of the wrapping paper with his lips, muttering around it. "I could figure something out." The paper refused to even fold in half easily, crinkling at odd angles. He let the paper fall from his mouth so that he could say clearly, "Maybe leave a note on my own locker and hope whomever wrapped it will see it."

"Whoever," Erik corrected again, voice curt as he grabbed the wrapping paper away from him. He quickly and efficiently folded it with no problem whatsoever. Raoul could not help but glare at the offending wrapping paper for being so difficult with him. "I have no idea what would work. It's never happened to me before."

"Oh." Raoul watched his hands working so deftly and could not help but smile even through his slight annoyance at how easy he made it look. "Oh!" he said again, immediately knowing what he could do now. He blushed when Erik gave him a weird look.

Shoving the neatly folded paper into his hands, Erik said, "Yeah, well. Don't do anything stupid over the weekend."

"I never do," he replied as the other boy walked away. Raoul watched him until he turned the corner, all the while grinning madly; a plan was already half-formed in his mind.

o.o.o

The first class that Raoul and Erik shared on Mondays was third period, and Raoul had made sure to have gotten everything from his locker well before the first bell.

Erik slid into his seat, the one right next to Raoul's. He leaned towards him and hissed out lowly, "How did you do that?"

Raoul looked up from the textbook that he had found, at least for Erik's arrival, to be the most interesting thing he had ever seen. Feigning surprise, he said as innocently as he could manage, "What are you talking about?"

"Raoul," Erik said warningly. "We don't have time to play this game. I know it was you."

"What was me?" Raoul asked, and it was too difficult not to smile. He knew he looked pleased with himself, but Erik was already certain it was him so there was no harm in letting some of his smugness come through.

"Stop playing stupid." Erik grabbed his textbook and kept it out of reach, holding it hostage. It was so absurd an action that Raoul could not help but look at Erik fondly. That only served to annoy him further though and Erik's scowl deepened. "You somehow managed to get into my locker in order to wrap it."

"Hm," Raoul pretended to think, looking up towards the ceiling. "I did see it wrapped this morning." He said reasonably, "I don't know why you're accusing _me_. Do you really think I randomly know the combination to your lock?"

Erik hesitated, gripping Raoul's textbook tighter. "No," he grudgingly admitted, but his next statement was firm. "But it _was _you."

"Why would I wrap your locker?" Raoul tilted his head. "Is it your birthday?"

"You damn well know it's not my birthday!" Erik said loud enough so that it garnered both of them looks from their classmates. Their classmates knew better than keep watching, however, knowing Erik's penchant for violent outbursts. Both of them knew that the lack of eyes on them meant little in terms of eavesdropping.

"Then it seems odd someone would see fit to wrap your locker," Raoul said. He added with a smirk, "Someone must really like you to do a 'just because' sort of effort."

"Raoul," Erik shook his head, lips shutting in a tight line as he exhaled harshly through his nose. "You…"

The bell ringing cut off the rest of his sentence and right on cue, their history teacher walked in and, as was his custom, began roll call without preamble.

"Would you look at that?" Raoul whispered, gesturing for Erik to give him back his textbook. "It's time for class."

o.o.o.o

End ficlet

A/N: One a day for seven days is just too much. Like, give me a one a day for three days because once I hit four, I hit a wall and everything goes downhill from there – especially editing. I am so tired right now. I appreciate everyone who's been reading and reviewing though. You guys give me enough energy to keep going. After all, I promised seven variations, right? I'll just have to learn how not to make promises that are so difficult. I also have no idea how this fic broke 2000 words.

Fic Review: Can I just say that it annoys Erik the entire class and pretty much the entire day (because Raoul manages to avoid him successfully) for many reasons. First of all, he knows with absolute certainty that Raoul's the one who wrapped his locker, knows it's him because the blond left him a note taped on the inside of his locker that said _Thank you – _could he have been more obvious? Erik would know Raoul's handwriting anywhere, but that's not really something he should admit. But it's also bothering him because of how much he's touched by the gesture; so, instead, he focuses his entire attention on the fact that there is no way Raoul or anyone should have known his locker combination. He was just glad that Raoul did not have the inclination to check his sketchbooks in there or else he would have found _a lot _of sketches of Raoul. Then, to exacerbate things more, even though Erik changes the lock he has, Raoul somehow manages to break into his locker every day that week in order to leave him thank you presents (candy, a picture of their class although it's one where Erik and Raoul are standing beside each other, pencils – and Raoul _keeps leaving notes_). It's only when Friday comes around that Raoul admits it was him and by then, Erik's like, 'no shit, Sherlock' except not in those words exactly. But Raoul's just full of surprises because he nervously asks Erik out on a date (because the week has proven to Raoul that maybe he was not so far off the mark when he thought Erik liked him back. After all, all of his gifts have been accepted). Cute dating ensues. :D


End file.
